Ohio AG throws cold water on viral story that Biden promoted of alleged child rape resulting in cross-state abortion

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (R) disclosed Monday that his office has not been notified of any 10-year-old rape victims, another red flag suggesting a story promoted by President Joe Biden is not true.

What is the background?

At a press conference last week, Biden spoke about a 10-year-old girl from Ohio who allegedly had to travel to a different state to receive an abortion.

"Just last week, it was reported that a 10-year-old girl was a rape victim — 10 years old — and she was forced to have to travel out of state to Indiana to seek to terminate the pregnancy and maybe save her life," Biden said.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre even claimed that Biden "spoke to that young woman just to show how extreme the decision on the Dobbs decision was and just how extreme it is now for American public, the American families when there is no exception at all."

The story was first reported by the Indianapolis Star on July 1 and was quickly propelled into the national spotlight. The story is based on claims made by Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist and abortion advocate. However, fact-checkers have been  unable to verify the story.

But what did Yost say?

Not only are fact-checkers unable to verify the story, but not a single law enforcement agency has released information corroborating the story.

This is an important detail because Ohio law requires mandatory reporters, like physicians, to report cases of child abuse to law enforcement. The rape of a 10-year-old child, resulting in a pregnancy, should have been immediately reported to law enforcement, who presumably would have opened a criminal investigation into the case.

But Yost told Fox News host Jesse Watters his agency has not heard even a "whisper" about the alleged victim or alleged perpetrator.

"So, Dave, have you had anybody come to you in your state to say we're looking into this? A police report was filed?" Watters asked.

"Not a whisper, and we work closely with the centralized law enforcement system in Ohio. We have regular contact with prosecutors and local police and sheriffs," Yost confirmed. "Not a whisper anywhere."

Not only has the Ohio attorney general's office not heard of any case like this, but the state crime lab has received no evidence of any crime, which would have been collected in a case of child sexual assault.

"Something maybe even more telling, Jesse, is my office runs the state crime lab. Any case like this, you are going to have a rape kit, you are going to have biological evidence, and you would be looking for DNA analysis, which we do most of the DNA analysis in Ohio," Yost disclosed. "There is no case request for analysis that looks anything like this."

Yost also confirmed that it would be a crime for a mandatory reporter to fail to report a case of child rape to law enforcement.

"The bottom line is: It is a crime if you're a mandated reporter to fail to report," Yost said. "It's also the fact that in Ohio, the rape of a 10-year-old means life in prison. I know our prosecutors and cops in this state. There's not one of them that wouldn't be turning over every rock in their jurisdiction if they had the slightest hint that this occurred."